Demirtaş’s lawyer, Ramazan Demir, announced on X on Wednesday that he had travelled to Edirne Prison in northwestern Turkey to meet with his client but said Demirtaş did not show up for the meeting due to a new practice requiring him to submit to a body search before and after every visit.
The lawyer said since Demirtaş finds the practice “humiliating,” he will never agree to it and as a result will no longer accept visits from his family members, lawmakers and lawyers.
Human rights activists and the pro-Kurdish Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) slammed the Justice Ministry for introducing the body search requirement for Demirtaş and called on it to end the practice as soon as possible.
The Demirtaş Defense Group, a platform comprising Demirtaş’s lawyers, said in a statement on Thursday that the prison administration has abandoned the controversial practice and that the politician can again receive prison visits.